Monday, May 24, 2010

(HARRISBURG, PA)—Keystone Progress attempted to deliver a Right to Know Request to the Office of Attorney General, but after a 40 minute wait at 1:30 in the afternoon, was told “Everyone is at lunch.Mail it in.”

“Once again, Tom Corbett’s Office is showing its disdain for the public and for the rule of law,” said Michael Morrill, executive director of Keystone Progress.“The Office of Attorney General cannot arbitrarily refuse to accept the legitimate requests of Pennsylvania citizens because its entire staff is at lunch at 1:30 in the afternoon.”

Here is the chronology of the OAG’s refusal to accept a Right to Know Request, by Michael Morrill, executive director of Keystone Progress.

1:15 PMI arrived at Office of Attorney General’s reception area on the first floor of Strawberry Square in Harrisburg.I was asked to call upstairs to the OAG’s office on the 15th floor to get permission to go upstairs.I told the woman who answered the phone who I was and that I wanted to come upstairs to submit a Right to Know request.At first, she said I could come right up.I asked her to talk to Capitol Police officer on duty to let him know it was alright.When the officer got off the phone, he told me that she could not allow me to come up and that I should wait a few minutes until she got an answer.She told him that she would call back in a few minutes.

1:25 PMThe officer on duty apologized for the delay and called the OAG asking whether they would allow me upstairs.He was told “everyone was at lunch.”The person on the phone said they would not allow me upstairs, but I could wait.

1:44 PMThe first floor receptionist was called by OAG.They said again that everyone was at lunch and that I would have to mail in my request.

The request seeks all correspondence concerning that suit between the OAG and numerous political operatives and organizations. This is KP’s second request for this information.The first was turned down by Corbett’s office.

Keystone Progress recently uncovered emails that revealed Corbett’s office has been working with a Republican campaign organization to plan to overturn the recently enacted federal healthcare reform law.KP uncovered the relationship in a series of emails released by the State of Wisconsin Department of Justice under a similar request by One Wisconsin Now.

Fourteen state attorneys general have filed suit to overturn the Affordable Healthcare for America Act, the federal healthcare reform law.Corbett has repeatedly denied that his efforts are political, despite the fact that he agreed to join the suit even before he had read the healthcare reform law.The lawsuit was filed just seven minutes after President Obama signed the bill into law.

The staff of the attorneys general have been working with the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC).RSLC describes itself as “the only national organization whose mission is electing Republicans to the office of Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State and State Legislator.”1RSLC is organized as a 527 organization which has contributed over $58 million to elect Republicans at the state level.RSLC was Corbett’s largest contributor during his race for reelection as attorney general, giving him $691,000, according to the PA Department of State.2

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“At the risk of getting subpoenaed or being subjected to retaliation by Attorney General Corbett, we are filing another request for this correspondence,” said Michael Morrill, Keystone Progress’ executive director.“The Wisconsin emails reveal what we believe is the tip of the iceberg concerning the involvement of the OAG and political operatives in this suit.Corbett’s office should comply with this request as the AG’s office in Wisconsin did.”

Keystone Progress is Pennsylvania’s largest online progressive network with over 200,000 subscribers.Keystone Progress is also a statewide communications network specializing in effective earned media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values.

HARRISBURG - The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania announced today that it is representing two anonymous Twitter users who have criticized State Attorney General Tom Corbett on a social networking site.Corbett’s office asked a grand jury to issue a subpoena earlier this month to Twitter demanding the identities of his critics.

“Any subpoena seeking to unmask the identity of anonymous critics raises the specter of political retaliation,” said Witold Walczak, legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania and one of the lawyers representing the Twitter users.“It’s a prized American right to criticize government officials, and to do so anonymously.”

The subpoena seeks the subscriber information of two Twitter accounts, bfbarbie and CasablancaPA. The subpoena, which asks for records to be turned over by Friday, May 14, was issued by the attorney general’s statewide investigating grand jury on May 6.

Twitter has advised the ACLU that they have not disclosed the account holders' identity, after receiving an objection from a user to the production of subscriber information. It is Twitter's policy to delay production in such cases to provide the user an opportunity to assert his or her rights.

A news account earlier today reported that the Attorney General’s Office appeared to justify the subpoena by claiming that they needed to know the identities of the Twitter users because they suspected that it was a former legislative aide, Brett Cott, who had been convicted in the Bonusgate case and who was using the blog to “attack and malign the investigative and prosecutorial process, which resulted in his conviction.”If true, they argued, this would justify imposing a harsher sentence. The ACLU questions whether seeking evidence in aid of a sentencing proceeding is an appropriate use of the grand jury system.

“The ACLU’s concerns are that using the grand jury process in aid of seeking evidence for sentencing is improper and that using the court to unmask political critics is unconstitutional retaliation that violates the First Amendment,” said Walczak.

The ACLU’s lawyers have entered discussions with the AG’s Office, asking them to withdraw the subpoenas.If the AG’s Office refuses, the ACLU expects to file a motion to quash the subpoenas.

"For a candidate who is campaigning on his desire to protect the privacy of Pennsylvanians who are affected by the new health care bill, Attorney General Corbett shows a disturbing lack of interest in the privacy of critics who, in the best tradition of American democracy, have chosen to criticize his conduct of office anonymously,” said Paul Alan Levy, a lawyer with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, which is working with the ACLU on the matter.

In addition to Walczak and Levy, also representing the anonymous Twitter users are Barbara Zemlock, a lawyer with Post Schell in Harrisburg, and Mark Sheppard, an attorney in the Philadelphia office of Montgomery McCracken, Walker and Rhoads, LLP.

The mainstream media are trumpeting Tuesday’s election results as a major victory for the Tea Party movement.That’s only natural.They created the link between the terms “Tea Party” and “movement,” so it’s in their self-interest to keep up the myth of a new, powerful grassroots force.The reality is very different from this narrative, as a quick look at the facts will reveal.

The biggest story, if you believe almost all of the national pundits, is the amazing victory of the Tea Party in backing Rand Paul, the libertarian son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas.Rand Paul won the Kentucky GOP nod for U.S. Senate, and then began to immediately self-destruct by stating that the government shouldn’t force restaurants and other private businesses to desegregate.But that’s a topic for another day.

In his victory speech, Paul declared, "The tea party movement is huge.The mandate of our victory tonight is huge.” That has become the prevailing narrative on Kentucky:the Tea Party won big time by backing Paul.But there are many problems with this story.

First, even if you grant that the Kentucky results are a major victory for the Tea Party (And I don’t.More on that below.), that is virtually the only significant competitive race in the country that the Tea Party can claim.

My home state of Pennsylvania provides fertile ground for the Tea Party.They claim organizations in almost every county.Yet even in the most conservative parts of the state, the Tea Party lost every major race they backed.

Their big push was in the special election in the 12th Congressional District to replace Jack Murtha.The 12th CD is custom made for the Tea Party, being the only district in the nation that voted for John Kerry in 2004 and John McCain in 2008.It’s a very conservative district, despite its Democratic registration edge.

The Tea Party made its major national push in this race, bringing in yet untold amounts of outside money.Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck made this race their priority, hoping to make Republican candidate Tim Burns the second coming of Scott Brown of Massachusetts.They even brought Brown in to campaign for Burns, in case people weren’t tuned in to Fox, et al.

So what was the result on Tuesday in the only race where a Democrat faced a Republican?Democrat Mark Critz won 53% to 45%.

The Tea Party didn’t fare that well in any other race in Pennsylvania.In the gubernatorial race the Tea Party backed Sam Rohrer, a true believer in laissez-faire capitalism and the entire TP agenda.Rohrer lost 69-31%.They backed Peg Luksik for US Senate.Luksik lost 82-18%.Their candidates for Lt. Gov. lost as well.Statewide, the Tea Party was “o-fer.”

In the PA General Assembly, they targeted Republican State Senators and Representatives.They did not unseat one incumbent anywhere in the state.And in my home county, the leader of the Berks County Tea Party, John Stahl, came in 9th out of 10 candidates for a seat on the Republican State Committee.

If you can’t win even one victory in Pennsylvania, then where’s the mandate?

Back to the Rand Paul victory in Kentucky.First, even though Paul was backed by the Tea Party, there were many other factors at play in Kentucky.Chief among those factors was a growing and palpable dislike of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.McConnell was seen as the king-maker, pushing his hand-picked candidate Trey Grayson to join him in the Senate.That fact, combined with the general anti-incumbent sentiments among the electorate nationwide was the prime driving force behind the results.In reality, this was more of a loss for Grayson/McConnell than it was a victory for Paul.

The media have been trying to hype this race as the epitome of the anger and disillusionment that is driving people to the polls in large numbers.But then there are those pesky facts to deal with.The Republican turnout in Kentucky’s US Senate primary was a dismal 33.7%.On the Democratic side it was 32.1%.1These are hardly the numbers that could be considered a mass movement.

The truth is Paul got less than 7.3% of the eligible voters in Kentucky (206,816 voted for Paul out of 2,851,996 registered voters ).Furthermore, Paul got fewer votes than either of the top two Democrats in the race.Jack Conway got 228,531 and second place finisher Daniel Mongiardo got 224,989.These numbers cannot in any way be considered a mandate or a roiling mass movement.

As I stated earlier, the mainstream media have made an investment in the Tea Party.Angry confrontations, funny costumes, controversial rhetoric.From a media standpoint, what’s not to like?The Tea Party makes a good story, so they get lots of press.But the facts of their impact are vastly overstated by reporters and pundits who don’t take the time to look at the actual numbers or ignore them for the sake of continuing the myth.

The real story from Tuesday’s results should be this—the Tea Party is a paper tiger.It is a small but vocal group of disgruntled Republicans who will have little impact in any general election in the fall.It is possible that they will take over many local and state Republican organizations, but they have not, and cannot, win competitive general elections.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Two under-reported items in the last few days have us wondering if Attorney General Tom Corbett has the temperament to serve in his current office, never mind being governor.

According to a first-person account by a self-described Republican Tea Party member on Monday Tom Corbett got so angry at a question that he came off the stage to confront the questioner. He then had the person removed from the venue.

“Tom Corbett had just finished his speech and I raised my hand to ask him a question. There were only 30 people in the room 15 were his staff and 15 showed up to hear him. I had two people with me so only 12 actually showed up to hear him. Anyway I asked the question Mr Corbett if you win tomorrow how will you handle your campaign and your subsequent Federal trial for alleged fraud in the Attorney Generals office. Tom Corbett got so irate he came off the platform through the crowd and confronted me to my face on the issue. All he said was that the info I was referring to was fraudulent and put out by the Sam Rohrer campaign. He shook his finger in my face and told me to go back to Sam and get my facts straight etc. I have nothing to do with the Sam Rohrer campaign! I was refering to the Thomas Kimmett / Sherry Bellaman civil complaint and the subsequent possible criminal trial of Tom Corbett and he knew it. I went there as a private citizen to ask a legitimate question as well as others but I could only ask the one before I was directed to leave. Tom’s state paid body guard/chauffeur the black guy tried to move me out but I would not budge. He actually tried to push me out but when he touched me he could not budge me so I stood there peacefully then he walked to the side when Tom came over to me. You will notice Tom also tried to usher me out with his hand on my left arm.”

According to techcrunch.com: “Tom Corbett, current Attorney General of the state of Pennsylvania and Gubernatorial Candidate, has subpoenaed Twitter to appear as a Grand Jury witness to "testify and give evidence regarding alleged violations of the laws of Pennsylvania".

The subpoena orders Twitter to provide "any and all subscriber information" of the person(s) behind two accounts -- @bfbarbie and @CasaBlancaPA -- who have been anonymously criticizing the man on the popular micro-sharing service.”

Corbett’s office tried to hide relationship by denying Right to Know Request.

(HARRISBURG)—Tom Corbett’s Office of Attorney General has been working with a Republican campaign organization to plan to overturn the recently enacted federal healthcare reform law. Keystone Progress uncovered the relationship in a series of emails released by the State of Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Keystone Progress had attempted to get this information through a Right to Know request, but Corbett’s office opted to keep the correspondence secret.

Fourteen state attorneys general have filed suit to overturn the Affordable Healthcare for America Act, the federal healthcare reform law. Corbett has repeatedly denied that his efforts are political, despite the fact that he agreed to join the suit even before he had read the healthcare reform law. The lawsuit was filed just seven minutes after President Obama signed the bill into law.

The emails reveal that the staff of the attorneys general have been working with the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). RSLC describes itself as “the only national organization whose mission is electing Republicans to the office of Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State and State Legislator.”1 RSLC is organized as a 527 organization which has contributed over $58 million to elect Republicans at the state level.

RSLC was Corbett’s largest contributor during his race for reelection as attorney general, giving him $691,000, according to the PA Department of State.2

The emails list David Sumner, Senior Deputy Attorney General and Ann Marie Kaiser, Director of Legislative Affairs as participants in the email exchange that included Ben Cannatti, the Political Director of RSLC.

Cannatti is described on the RSLC website as “the RSLC’s Political Director since the group’s inception in 2002. Working with the RSLC political staff, Ben oversees the expenditure of millions of dollars each year and developing the committee’s political strategy and tactics in attorneys general, state legislative, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state races across the country.”3

The email exchange was obtained by Keystone Progress from One Wisconsin Now (OWN). OWN got the emails by filing a public records request with the Attorney General of Wisconsin, J.B. Van Hollen.

Keystone Progress asked for the same information from Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office, but was denied. “Now we know why Corbett refused to comply with the Right to Know Law,” said Michael Morrill, Executive Director of Keystone Progress. “He wanted to keep these emails secret.”

The emails that were released do not reveal much detail about strategy, but they expose the long-denied political motives of the suit.

“We believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg,” added Morrill. “There are undoubtedly going to be more revelations about the political nature of this suit. Corbett should learn from history and release all related correspondence now. The cover-up is always worse than the original act.”

Keystone Progress is Pennsylvania’s largest online progressive network with over 200,000 subscribers.Keystone Progress is also a statewide communications network specializing in effective earned media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values.